Malkin or Giroux

[His Dudeness]

In a keeper league with salary cap (based on actual NHL salary, not cap) who would you rather own? The recent thread about who will next get 100 points made me wonder, as a Malkin owner. Giroux is 1.5 years younger and his 8 year contract 1.225 million per year cheaper, on average.

[Hoochie Coochie Man]

I fully expect to be in the minority here, but I take Giroux. If you were guarenteed 82 games out of each I'd take Malkin, but that's not the case. Add to Malkin's injury woes the benefit of saving cap space and Giroux being younger- it's Giroux.

[HockeyProphet]

Malkin

[Axeman33]

I fully expect to be in the minority here, but I take Giroux. If you were guarenteed 82 games out of each I'd take Malkin, but that's not the case. Add to Malkin's injury woes the benefit of saving cap space and Giroux being younger- it's Giroux.

I think you make some good points, but Giroux isn't in the same group of players as a guy like Malkin is, and if you have the chance to snag one of those top tier players (Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin (ugh), Tavares or Stamkos) you do it. Giroux isn't too far from that group, but I still think he's a tier II player in the league, for now.

[Big Baby]

As a former Malkin owner and a current Giroux owner this one is tough. They are very close in value. And that's even if Malkin plays a full year. Giroux is only getting better in my opinion and I believe that a player like Gaborik or Hemsky will join him on his wing next season, which will only help his totals. Malkin is fantastic and if he's healthy he puts up 95-100 points. But that's a big if. And having Crosby on his team hurts his production. Not to mention, he may lose his sniper winger, Neal this summer. Giroux already put up 93 points in his young career and if not for a broken finger that slowed his start this year he would have probably been closer to 100. He was tearing it up from the middle of November on. It's close, but give me the peace of mind of Giroux over the uncertainty of Malkin.

[Big Baby]

I think you make some good points, but Giroux isn't in the same group of players as a guy like Malkin is, and if you have the chance to snag one of those top tier players (Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin (ugh), Tavares or Stamkok) you do it. Giroux isn't too far from that group, but I still think he's a tier II player in the league, for now.

We all know Giroux had broken his finger last off season and it was on his shooting hand. He played through the pain for the first 15 or 20 games and himself admitted that it was bothering him when shooting. On Nov 11th he finally scores his first goal, in the 16th game of the season. So from that point how did he do. Lets take a look

Final 60 games this year for each player(Malkin only played 60)

Crosby = 79 points
Malkin = 72 points
Giroux = 71 points
Getzlaf = 71 points

They are still very close but the difference is that, Giroux who is cheaper and younger and is just as good as Malkin, and he plays mostly every game. I also believe that Giroux has another gear. Ed Snyder is an old grumpy fart but he wasn't that far off when he said, Giroux was the best player in the world. Over the past three seasons nobody in the league as more points than Giroux. That reliability is more valuable than the potential 110 point upside of Malkin.

[Axeman33]

We all know Giroux had broken his finger last off season and it was on his shooting hand. He played through the pain for the first 15 or 20 games and himself admitted that it was bothering him when shooting. On Nov 11th he finally scores his first goal, in the 16th game of the season. So from that point how did he do. Lets take a look

Final 60 games this year for each player

Crosby = 79 points
Malkin = 72 points
Giroux = 71 points
Getzlaf = 71 points

They are still very close but the difference is that, Giroux who is cheaper and younger and is just as good as Malkin, and he plays mostly every game. I also believe that Giroux has another gear. Ed Snyder is an old grumpy fart but he wasn't that far off when he said, Giroux was the best player in the world. Over the past three seasons nobody in the league as more points than Giroux. That reliability is more valuable than the potential 110 point upside of Malkin.

Reliability is good but not a guarantee. Look at guys like Tavares and Stamkos this past season who have been able to avoid injuries during their careers. Injuries can happen to anyone, anytime. If you are banking on Giroux to be as good because his is more "reliable", then that is almost as risky as banking on Malkin getting hurt.

Dont get me wrong, I am not saying Giroux isn't a high end NHL player, but I don't consider him on that same plateau as a Malkin. That is simply my opinion.

[kevinsrangers]

malkin by far for me.
the finall 60 game of giroux are close but why not take his first 60 games for referance? not close there.
also do you get cap/salary relief if a guy hits the IR? thaty makes a big differance too.

[2014olympicgold]

I’d pick Giroux. It’s such a big blow when you draft someone in the first round, expecting 80-100 points and get 60 points on the season due to injuries. To me the first rounds are for safe bets.

Let’s say you draft Giroux (80points) and Malkin doesn’t get injured he could get 100points. 20 point difference isn’t much at that high of a total. Malkin getting 100 points usually means Crosby is hurt, or is playing on the same line as Crosby which doesn’t happen to much anymore (maybe with a new coach this will happen tho).

Let’s say you get Malkin and he gets hurt (again) and doesn’t top 70 points (again). You now just drafted a 3^rd round player (based on point total) in the 1^st round.

I’ll take almost guaranteed ppg player over a player who ranges from 60-100 points. Also the addition of a winger eligible player who actually wins a lot of faceoffs is great when having locked position league with FW as a cat. Cheap is better too. I would assume the extra cap space is handy drafting later and also when “wheeling and dealing”.

If your league trades a lot tho, Malkin’s name carries more weight and you could trade him for a big package upgrade when he’s hot. To me though, he’s the biggest name player I would never trade for when hot.


This trade seems to be based on personal preference on injury prone players. I like my locks for solid numbers on my top tier players, and go for the risk in the middle tier players.

[Kofax]

I think you make some good points, but Giroux isn't in the same group of players as a guy like Malkin is, and if you have the chance to snag one of those top tier players (Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin (ugh), Tavares or Stamkok) you do it. Giroux isn't too far from that group, but I still think he's a tier II player in the league, for now.

Heh heh heh... Stamkok...

[Laendarian]

We all know Giroux had broken his finger last off season and it was on his shooting hand. He played through the pain for the first 15 or 20 games and himself admitted that it was bothering him when shooting. On Nov 11th he finally scores his first goal, in the 16th game of the season. So from that point how did he do. Lets take a look

Final 60 games this year for each player(Malkin only played 60)

Crosby = 79 points
Malkin = 72 points
Giroux = 71 points
Getzlaf = 71 points

They are still very close but the difference is that, Giroux who is cheaper and younger and is just as good as Malkin, and he plays mostly every game. I also believe that Giroux has another gear. Ed Snyder is an old grumpy fart but he wasn't that far off when he said, Giroux was the best player in the world. Over the past three seasons nobody in the league as more points than Giroux. That reliability is more valuable than the potential 110 point upside of Malkin.

malkin by far for me.
the finall 60 game of giroux are close but why not take his first 60 games for referance? not close there.
also do you get cap/salary relief if a guy hits the IR? thaty makes a big differance too.

Agree with Kevin here, anyone can take convenient snaps and make a player look better then they are, if you snap shotted Giroux's first 20 games vs Malkins first 20 then it would make him look like Rene Bourque instead of Crosby.

sample size is key, last three years (taking it from Giroux's breakout campaign to help his numbers)

Giroux: 227 points in 207 games (1.1 ppg pace)
Malkin: 214 points in 166 games (1.3 ppg pace)

So basically over 3 years Malkin came 13 points shy of Giroux's totals (or 4 points a year..) in 41 fewer games.

Give me Malkin easily, he can play 17% less games and still put up Giroux numbers.

[Big Baby]

The argument isn't who is a better player. We all know it's Malkin. But we're talking fantasy value. Giroux plays. Malkin gets hurt. People were probably saying the same thing last year and the year before. Malkin's upside is through the roof but I'm not betting on him playing a full season. Give me a brand new car that can only do 80kph over an old beater that can do 100kph but breaks down on every trip.

[Big Baby]

Agree with Kevin here, anyone can take convenient snaps and make a player look better then they are, if you snap shotted Giroux's first 20 games vs Malkins first 20 then it would make him look like Rene Bourque instead of Crosby.

sample size is key, last three years (taking it from Giroux's breakout campaign to help his numbers)

Giroux: 227 points in 207 games (1.1 ppg pace)
Malkin: 214 points in 166 games (1.3 ppg pace)

So basically over 3 years Malkin came 13 points shy of Giroux's totals (or 4 points a year..) in 41 fewer games.

Give me Malkin easily, he can play 17% less games and still put up Giroux numbers.

If you were in a tight race to win your pool and you had either Malkin or Giroux the last 2 seasons. Who gave you a better chance to win. The answer is Giroux and I don't see why that will change anytime soon.

[Axeman33]

Heh heh heh... Stamkok...

LOL! Thanks, fixed.

[Big Baby]

malkin by far for me.
the finall 60 game of giroux are close but why not take his first 60 games for referance? not close there.
also do you get cap/salary relief if a guy hits the IR? thaty makes a big differance too.

That's not really a great argument. I only picked 60 games because that's all Malkin played! And I picked the last 60 because, as I said Giroux was hurt. If we use the actual final 60 games, Malkin only played in 40, so Giroux wins there. And Giroux wins on the season total. My point was that when Giroux was healthy he was producing just as much as Malkin. He had 7 points in his first 15 games and still finished with 86. Third on the league. 1 behind Getzlaf, who plays with Perry and was healthy all year. C'mon. Give Giroux some credit.